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Even those on the political left (not the ideological left) consider Chris Hedges to be on the fringe.

That's scary. It's scary because when those making sense are marginalized, the end is near. Here are the closing paragraphs in Hedges' column tody, Our Sinister Dual State:

Societies that once had democratic traditions, or periods when openness was possible, are often seduced into totalitarian systems because those who rule continue to pay outward fealty to the ideals, practices and forms of the old systems. This was true when the Emperor Augustus dismantled the Roman Republic. It was true when Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized control of the autonomous soviets and ruthlessly centralized power. It was true following the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazi fascism. Thomas Paine described despotic government as a fungus growing out of a corrupt civil society. And this is what has happened to us.

No one who lives under constant surveillance, who is subject to detention anywhere at any time, whose conversations, messages, meetings, proclivities and habits are recorded, stored and analyzed, can be described as free. The relationship between the U.S. government and the U.S. citizen is now one of master and slave. Yet the prerogative state assures us that our rights are sacred, that it abides by the will of the people and the consent of the governed.

Rep. Victoria Steele’s (D-9) bill to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (HCR2016) was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee late last week. (You’ll remember that mid-week, I reported it was languishing on the desk of House Speaker Andy Tobin.)

This week is the last week for bills to be heard by committees of the Arizona Legislature. Currently, the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to meet onThursday, Feb. 20, 2014. ERA ratification is not on the agenda, but– hey– it’s only Monday. Agendas and committee meeting dates routinely shift around in the Arizona Legislature. Arizona women deserve economic equality. It's time to make some phone calls to Phoenix!

Bills can be killed in multiple ways: they can be voted down in committee, voted down by the Legislature, or just plain ignored by the Speaker or the committee chair. If the HCR2016 isn’t heard this week, it will die in committee. Arizona women deserve economic equality. Tucson's favorite "moderate" LD9 Rep. Ethan Orr is on the Judiciary Committee; he could be an important swing vote on the ERA. [Contact information for committee members after the jump.]

ALEC's Stealth Convention

"AJR 81 comes right out of the 'Convention of States' workshop and materials presented at ALEC where state legislators were promised bundled campaign contributions and grassroots support if they joined this effort to amend the federal constitution," said Rep. Chris Taylor, a Madison Democrat who attended ALEC's Annual Meeting in Chicago last summer, in a statement. "I am alarmed that this effort is now making its way through the Wisconsin legislature and is tentatively scheduled to be considered by the full Assembly next Tuesday."

The New York Times today has an update on the surprising move by the Tea-Publican controlled Senate in the Kansas legislature blocking the same model legislation for religious bigotry that is in the Arizona legislature. In Kansas, Right Joins Left to Halt Bill on Gays:

A bill that would have allowed individuals to refuse to provide business services to same-sex couples in Kansas because of religious beliefs met a surprising and quick end last week when conservative senators sided with liberal advocates in saying that the measure promoted discrimination.

The bill had passed the House, 72 to 49, last Wednesday and it appeared that it might also easily sail through the Senate. Both chambers are controlled by conservative Republicans who in recent years have passed some of the most conservative legislation in the country, whether on gun control, abortion rights or taxes.

Susan Wagle, a conservative Republican who is president of the Kansas Senate, raised opposition to the House measure, saying she had “grown concerned about the practical impact of the bill” and “my members don’t condone discrimination.”

Ms. Wagle was backed by Senator Jeff King, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who said he would not hold hearings on the House bill. Instead, Mr. King said, his committee would hold hearings on the broader topic of religious freedom in Kansas and explore whether the Legislature needed to take any further steps to shore up those protections.

Long time political talk show host John C. Scott was let go at KVOI radio station (AM 1030 on the dial) on December 17, 2013 but is re-surfacing today at KVET AM 1210, from 3 to 5 p.m. John C. Scott and his producer son Mark Ulm advertise their show as the "longest running political talk show in Tucson." He has broadcast his show from Washington, D.C., China, and Israel.

According to John Schuster at the Weekly: "This will the be the fifth local AM frequency where Scott has broadcast his show. Since starting the talk-show portion of his radio career in 1989, Scott has been on KTUC 1400, KTKT 990, KJLL (now KWFM) 1330 and KVOI." That's a long, dedicated career in radio.

Listen weekdays Monday to Friday, 3 to 5 p.m. He interviews mostly politicians, political candidates, journalists, and business leaders in Tucson and Arizona, and covers many community events.

Today's guests will be John McCain, Fred DuVal, Andy Tobin, Terry Goddard, Glenn Hamer, and Mark B. Evans, according to his Facebook page.

Well, they've reached the first "deadline" week of the session, and that is reflected in the length of committee agendas.

Friday is the last day for bills introduced in a particular chamber to be heard in that chamber's committees. There are exceptions (bills can still be considered by the Appropriations committees) or exceptions can be made (schmooze the Senate President/House Speaker), but for the most part, proposals that don't pass committee by the end of the week are dead

...Unless they are revived by a strike-everything amendment (striker) and pasted into the frame of another bill that *did* pass committee. But that's another post...

This week, because the agendas are so long, and so fluid, this post will be presented in two parts.

Monday and Tuesday's schedules will be in this part, while the agendas for Wednesday and Thursday will be analyzed on Tuesday evening.

Notes:

All committees meetings and agendas are subject to change without notice, and frequently do. If you plan to travel to the Capitol to observe or weigh in on the consideration of a particular measure, check with the lege ahead of time to confirm that the meeting that you are interesting in is still on schedule and your item(s) of interest is still on the agenda for that meeting.

Meeting rooms designated "HHR" are in the House of Representatives building.

Meeting rooms designated "SHR" are in the Senate building.

Some agendas are summarized as "looks harmless", but if they cover an area of interest to you, examine the agenda and the bills on it. If I missed something significant, please leave a comment letting me know.

Jamelle Boiue writing at The Daily Beast expounds upon Attorney General Eric Holder's call to end felony disenfranchisement of former prisoners who have served their sentence and repaid their debt to society. The Jim Crow Zombie That Won't Die:

Felon disenfranchisement laws are, literally, a vestige of Jim Crow. It’s time for them to go.

Nationwide, five million Americans are barred from voting because of felony convictions. In recent years, a coalition of reformers on the left and right (including former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky), have moved to either mitigate the effects of this, or push for full repeal of these felon disenfranchisement laws.

And for good reason. As is true of most things in the criminal justice system, this is a status quo with particular harm for African Americans. Thanks to the rampant racial disparities in arrests and prosecutions, blacks—and black men in particular—bear the brunt of these policies. More than thirteen percent of black men are unable to vote because of a felony conviction, with no regards to the nature of the offense or time served.

Indeed, for reasons you can imagine, the biggest impact is felt in the states of the former Confederacy, where disenfranchisement laws are especially draconian, and several states—Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi—have lifetime voting bans.

Early in the Civil War, Gen. Joseph Johnston and his generals in Northern Virginia quarreled with Confederate President Davis in Richmond over the practicality of the president's defensive war policy. While advocating a defensive posture in Northern Virginia, Davis was also eager to extend Confederate power as far as the Pacific. Taking control of California's lucrative gold fields would provide a source of revenue for the haughty, new Confederacy. Any westward expansion of slavery would also be strongly supported by the South's politically powerful large plantation owners.

For years, variations of the expansionist dream of slave owners had been a mainstay of dinner conversations in the South's finest plantations. The objective was to create a confederation in the Western Hemisphere which would include the Southern Slave States, the territories of the southwest United States, possibly Cuba, parts of Central America and northern Mexico. Although it is now largely forgotten, the hazy notion was a subtle part of the ideology driving many of the promoters of secession. The dream held out a promise of an empire based on cotton production and slavery. It offered a sparkling alternative to the fraying relationship the South had in the Union. It was a belief held by many of the South's leaders despite the fact that the institution of slavery was being dismantled in other parts of the world.

There seems to be an awakening of sorts in the writing on inequality recently. It's really not about the top one percent. The top one percent (and its counterpart, the 99 percent) is a useful frame, but it's imprecise at best, and I would say inaccurate.

Ritholtz depicts, with a simple graph, the vast chasm between the one percent and the 0.01%.

And he's correct. A professional or small business owner making half a mil a year is not the source of the economic injustice we face and he's within the range of inequality that has a redeeming quality for the economy -- the reward of hard work. More importantly, and this part does not get the play it should, the folks at the lower reaches of the top one percent are not creating vast fortunes. They may wind up with a few million in savings by retirement, but year-to-year they're spending most of their earnings on living expenses and the taxes imposed on their labor.

The folks at the very top are in an entirely different class. They're either absurdly overpaid (CEOs) or have income through stock ownership, or both. Their effective tax rates are lower than the rest of the population. And as Thucky has pointed out here in comments (yes, correctly), they don't pay tax at all as their portfolio values increase. Most importantly, their income or, more accurately, their rate of increase in wealth, vastly outstrips their living expenses. The result? A larger and larger share of our wealth pie flows to this tiny slice of the population.

Will we stop referring to the one percent? No, it's a convenient frame to which others can relate. But if it weren't so clumsy, the better reference would be the top .1% or the top .01%.

Brewer herself is still considered a potential gubernatorial candidate. She is expected to announce in February whether she'll challenge the state's term-limit laws. Arizona law permits statewide-elected officials to serve only two consecutive terms. Article 5, Section 1 of the Arizona Constitution states, â€œNo member of the executive department after serving the maximum number of terms, which shall include any part of a term served, may serve in the same office until out of office for no less than one full term."

But Brewer and private attorney Joe Kanefield, a friend of Brewer's, have said there is "ambiguity" in that passage, saying the legal question centers on the definition of "term." Kanefield has said drafters were referring to a governor who was elected to a term and not a governor who inherited the office by succession. Brewer was not elected to the office in 2009, but ascended to the seat when then-Gov. Janet Napolitano resigned her seat to join President Barack Obama's Cabinet.

There are twelve days left in February. So what's it going to be, Guv, yes or no? Time to announce.

Over 125 people filled up the Lower Level 1 meeting room of the Joel D. Valdez Main library yesterday in downtown Tucson for a Community Forum/panel discussion on homelessness. Tim Steller, columnist at the Arizona Daily Star moderated a panel of eight individuals:

This event was co-sponsored by Downtown Tucson Partnership, Primavera Foundation, Tucson Arts Brigade, Occupy Public Land, Safe Park, Community Supported Shelters, Nonviolence Legacy Project and Central City Assembly. The only politician represented was Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik (who was ill) – his Chief of Staff Ann Charles was present and spoke at the Q & A session afterward, saying they wanted to assist in continuance of this dialogue.

As we walked in there was a flyer (based on a recent January 30 survey of homeless at Safe Park) entitled “WHAT WE WANT” and this is what was listed:

Donations to Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona are NOT tax-deductible and may be used for political purposes, including supporting and opposing candidates.

Each ticket purchase includes membership in PPAA, which allows you to directly support pro-women's health candidates by contributing to our Super PAC and includes benefits such as primary and general election voter guides, regular communication regarding our endorsed candidates and women's health legislative news.

EMILY's List Founder Ellen Malcolm

Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox

Rising Star Nettie Silleck

It will be a Saturday to remember!

Last year, we were able to bring 40 young women to our events thanks to generous members who gave scholarships!

Buy a ticket at either luncheon and put "student scholarship" in the notes - it is the best way to get our next generation involved and committed.

Arizona List + You = Changing the Face of Power in Arizona

Contributions to Arizona List and Arizona List PAC are not deductible for tax purposes. Arizona Law limits the amount that an individual can contribute each year to candidates and non-party committees that support candidates. Paid for by Arizona List and not authorized by any candidate.

The Political Calendar is posted on Sundays. Please send us notice of your political events prior to the Sunday before your event (7 days would be most helpful). See the calendar icon in the right-hand column of the blog page for easy access to the calendar.

Earlier this week the radical Tea-Publican House in the Kansas Legislature passed a religious bigotry bill nearly identical to the religious bigotry bill currently in the Arizona Legislature. These bills are almost certainly model legislation from the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) that I posted about earlier. The Arizona Republic:One step forward, two steps back on religious bigotry.

Supporters describe it as a religious freedom measure. Opponents contend it will encourage discrimination against gays and lesbians.

The bill would bar government sanctions when individuals, groups and businesses cite religious beliefs in refusing to recognize a marriage or civil union, or to provide goods, services, accommodations or employment benefits to a couple. Anti-discrimination lawsuits also would be barred. Individual workers and government employees also would get some protections.

* * *

The bill covers private and public employees. Government agencies would still be required to provide services, but individual clerks could refuse to serve same-sex couples based on their religious beliefs on marriage.

Businesses would still provide services, provided it was not unduly burdensome to do so.

* * *

The bill’s true purpose is to enable discrimination by government employees, said Thomas Witt, spokesman, for Equality Kansas.

In other words, a return to the "good ol' days" of state-sanctioned segregation -- this time against gays and lesbians.

HB2305 Update!

We need your help on Monday, Feb. 17

Thanks to your help, and the signatures of over 144,000 Arizonans, the harmful anti-voter bill HB2305 was referred to the November 2014 ballot.

Now the same politicians who passed HB2305 are trying to repeal it in a desperate attempt to circumvent the referendum process. First they thought they could pass this harmful bill without the scrutiny of voters, now they think they can kill the referendum to avoid being held accountable by the voters.

We think HB2305 is bad because it will hurt voters. Republicans now are trying to repeal it because they think it will hurt them politically. The Legislature has no right to do an end-run around the referendum and the Arizona Constitution, which gives the citizens the right to veto any bill from the Legislature. Additionally, without a referendum, Republicans will be free to pass more harmful anti-voter bills in the future. The Republicans in the Legislature cannot be trusted.

Join us at the State Capitol as we let the Republicans in the Legislature know that we will hold them accountable for taking away the right of the voters to weigh in on this important issue.

What:Day of Action to demand that the voters are not silenced and allowed to vote on HB2305 in November

I remember reading a piece by Matt Taibbi which he opened by apologizing to himself and his readers for succumbing to the temptation to blast away at David Brooks, after promising not to. Matt, buddy, I'll never be one-tenth the writer you are, but I feel your pain.

On to the Thuckster.

This second thing about Thucky follows logically from the first, so I need to develop the first just a little further. I recently had an exchange with Thucky in which he ventured out of his comfort zone and tried to do his own analysis. He got it absolutely dead wrong, reaching the opposite conclusion that logic would dictate. I'll reprint the exchange at the end of the post.

So, I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that Thucky's a religious dude. I have no specific knowledge here. I've not seen any references to his faith, although there may be some in the comments he posts to posts of my colleagues.

But here's the thing. Thucky idolizes the conservative economists he cites. But he's demonstrated over and over again here that he doesn't have the intellectual wherewithal to understand how they reach their conclusions, or to test their logic with any real rigor.

So, how does Thucky "know" the supply-siders he worships are right, despite all the evidence to the contrary? How does he disregard plain logic presented to him that undermines his supply-side view? Because he has religion, and that allows him to have faith that his supply-side heroes are not leading him astray.

I just found out about this free and anonymous Pima County program to dispose of prescription and over-the-counter tablets, capsules, liquids, creams (in their original containers is best). Just drop off these items at the locations below, no questions asked. Please don't flush these meds down the toilet, or drop them in the trash. It's also better to dispose of them safely in case children, pets, elderly people find & ingest them by mistake.

"Dispose-A-Med is comprised of concerned citizens like yourself focused on minimizing the abuse of prescription medications amongst teens and preventing accidental drug poisonings of children and the elderly. By providing a safe and effective method of drug disposal, the Dispose-A-Med program minimizes the introduction of pollutants into our environment and helps insure high quality water in our aquifers.

Formed in 2009, Dispose-A-Med includes representatives from a variety of community partners including law enforcement, fire departments, pharmacies, water and wastewater utilities and community coalitions.

Mission:

To protect the public health and safety, protection of the environment and preservation of our groundwater quality through the safe collection and disposal of unwanted medications and personal care products."

And if you live in Oro Valley area, there's a collection on Feb. 15, 10 to 2 p.m. at the Target located at 10555 N.Oracle Rd. Next one thereafter is on March 11, 9 to 11 a.m., 1495 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd.

By now, everyone in the lege-watcher universe knows about Sen. Steve Yarbrough and his penchant for pushing self-enriching tuition tax credit measures in the lege, measures that add to his personal wealth.

And even though his activities have been public knowledge for years now, every year, Yarbrough pushes more self-serving measures through the lege.

Why shouldn't he? Other than the news stories, he hasn't faced any pushback for his actions - he keeps getting reelected and this state's prosecutors won't touch him.

Now, one of his Senate colleagues, Rick Murphy, has apparently taken the lesson from Yarbrough's situation to heart - go ahead and use the lege as a conduit for self-serving agendas.

Last summer, Murphy was caught up in a scandal when there were allegations the he abused some of the children placed in his care as a foster parent.

After an investigation by Peoria PD and CPS found insufficient evidence to support criminal charges, the matter was dropped.

Well, the police and CPS dropped the matter, but Murphy most assuredly has not.

Apparently, Murphy is still pissed off to no end that they dared to investigate him.

Recently, there's been a spike in the number of plutocrats whining about their negative press and/or demonizing the poor. Tops on the list of course is billionaire Tom Perkins. A few weeks back, Perkins made headlines for likening the top one percent to German Jews. He retracted that, sort of, but now is saying that Americans ought to vote in proportion to how much they pay in income tax.

He's not alone. We had another billionaire say, effectively, that if the 99% would just work harder, they could be in the 1% too. Get that? We can all be in the 1%. Even Thucky wouldn't buy that baloney.

If you want to read more about these folks, go to inequality.org and sign up for Sam Pizzigati's weekly newsletter "Too Much," which includes a piece on the "Petulant Plutocrat of the Week."

So, what's happening here? It seems like we're watching the plutocrats self-destruct. They could maintain a low profile. If they did, they likely could continue to wield the massive power they have in Washington and state capitals for years to come. But they can't help themselves. Their egos won't let them. Egos aren't rational, you see.

A useful analogy is the way nonviolence achieves its desired result. Nonviolent resistance itself doesn't accomplish the intended result. It's when those in power over-react by engaging in violence to put down the resistance that things move in the desired direction. The general public, offended by the brutality of those in power, sides with the resistance. That's the development that dooms those in power. And their own actions are what bring it about.

So it is with the ultra-rich. As they react in such an ugly fashion to questions about their wealth, the numbers opposed to them increase. When the class war finally erupts in full, the ranks of those willing to defend the rich will be too thin, largely because of the actions of the rich themselves.

The Arizona Republic frequently decries "dark money" organizations on its editorial page, but it oddly is limited to concern about public employee union "dark money" organizations that attacked their boy, Phoenix City councilman Sal Diciccio. It's funny (not) how little attention the Republic pays to the vast network hub of "dark money" organizations operating out of Maricopa County. Maybe it's because these people are their friends, neighbors and asssociates whom they hang out with at cocktail parties and political events.

About the only place you can find any reference to Sean Noble* and the "Kochtopus" dark money network he operates out of Maricopa County is here. This is a fundamental failure of the corporate news media to perform its constitutional function as the "watchdog of democracy."

For a brief, giddy moment, Sean Noble—a little-known former aide to Arizona congressman [John Shadegg]—became one of the most important people in American politics.

Plucked from obscurity by libertarian billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, Noble was tasked with distributing a torrent of political money raised by the Koch network, a complex web of nonprofits nicknamed the Kochtopus, into conservative causes in the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Noble handed out almost $137 million in 2012 alone -- all of it so-called dark money from unnamed donors -- from his perch atop the Center to Protect Patient Rights, a group run out of an Arizona post office box.

Tim Steller of the Arizona Daily Star is writing the most recent iteration of the Political Notebook that Rhonda Bodfield and Daniel Scarpinato (now with the RNCC) before her used to write. God, I hated the Political Notebook!

Anyway, Timmeh takes issue with Blog for Arizona's Pamela Powers Hannley for taking issue with a recent column of his, correctly pointing out that Rep. Ethan Orr (R-Tucson) only nurtures the appearance of being a moderate but votes with his GOP caucus routinely.

I would make the point that the occasional departure vote does not make Orr a "moderate" or a RINO, any more than a Democrat casting the occasional departure vote makes him or her a Teabagger or a DINO. It is a voting record taken as a whole that matters.

Today's Steller column wastes everyone's time focusing on Facebook comments about his previous column with which Pamela Powers Hannley took issue. Yeah, that's not news. Too many political reporters are fixated with social media like Twitter and Facebook. It is not news.

Our lawless legislature continues to demonstrate its contempt for the citizens of Arizona and their constitutional right to refer an act of the legislature to the voters to decide in a citizens referendum ("citizens veto"). The larger context here is its utter contempt for democracy and the right to vote.

More than 140,000 Arizonans braved the heat of an Arizona summer to circulate and sign petitions to refer HB 2305, the GOP Voter Suppression Act, to the ballot in November to let the people decide on what the legislature enacted as a "strike everything" amendment in the dead of night when no one was watching. There was no public notice, and no public hearing before a committee.

(If you want to outlaw something in the Arizona Constitution, let's start with the "strike everything" amendment. All bills should have to be filed, noticed for public hearing, and proceed through "regular order" of committee hearings and floor amendments.)

It turns out the only people who supported this crazy idea are teabaggers and supporters of Rosemont Mine, who are a distinct minority. There was strong opposition from constituents living in the affected areas and from the county governments. The Green Valley New reports, Griffin ends bid to move county line:

Sen. Gail Griffin (R-Hereford) introduced SB 1357 last week. The bill would have put to a vote the idea of moving the Santa Cruz County line to Pima Mine Road on the northern boundary of Sahuarita.

Griffin's office has been barraged by emails and phone calls on the bill since last week.

Griffin on Thursday put the brakes on a bill that could have moved Green Valley, Sahuarita and the mines into Santa Cruz County.

Griffin said questions raised on both sides led to the decision, and said her committee also has 20 other bills to consider before a Monday deadline. She said she hasn't decided whether to reintroduce the bill next year.

Here's your answer: "The plan has been floated several times in the past and has met near-universal disapproval on both sides of the county line." Give it up.

A federal judge in Norfolk struck down as unconstitutional Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage Thursday night, saying the country has “arrived upon another moment in history when We the People becomes more inclusive, and our freedom more perfect.”

U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen issued a sweeping 41-page Opinion and Order (.pdf) that mentioned at length Virginia’s past in denying interracial marriage and quoted Abraham Lincoln. She struck the constitutional amendment Virginia voters approved in 2006 that both bans same-sex marriage and forbids recognition of such unions performed elsewhere.

She stayed her decision pending appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, meaning same-sex marriages will not be immediately available in the commonwealth.

It is statehood day, so I wanted to write something special. This was written a few years ago and posted in a few different places. I was going to re-visit this list, but I decided that I still like my choices, since you still have not heard of most of these. My call to the reader to feel free to take issue with this list still stands.

February 14th is, among other things, Statehood Day in Arizona. This means that someone, somewhere, will publish the inevitable “greatest Arizonans who ever lived” or “people/events that changed Arizona” lists in newspapers or blogs. The results of these lists are predictable. They nearly always, for instance, include Barry Goldwater. I have nothing against Goldwater’s inclusion, but the late Senator is a little like the Beatles; yeah they were great; yes, things are different because of what they did, but that does not mean that they are not over-rated.

So I am making my own list. This list will not include easy choices like Goldwater, Kino and Poston, names which should already be familiar to most readers. Instead, I take this opportunity to highlight some of the individuals whose names should be familiar, but have instead slipped into relative obscurity despite their role in shaping the Arizona we all know and love.

My standards in making this list are fairly simple. First, the named individual must no longer be alive and must have no institutions, streets, towns, parks, or substantial monuments named for them. Naturally, the individual must have made a lasting, positive contribution to Arizona during their lifetime regardless of the length of their residency in the state. This last one is, of course, highly subjective, and I will have to admit not only to my geographic bias as a Tucsonan but also my political bias as a Democrat. Anyone who has an issue with one of my choices, or someone I did not choose, should feel free to make these views known.

Not sure why it's become a cult movie, but I guess it's the 60 year age difference between young Harold and elderly Maude, plus the wonderful Cat Stevens (aka Yusuf) tunes.

There's going to be a prize for the couple with the biggest age difference, plus a Harold & Maude costume contest (don't forget the yellow umbrella), and a free raffle for romantic goodies. What fun. One of my friends married a guy 14 years younger, but they're not in town for this V-Day event.

"A 19-year-old man with a death wish and a 79-year-old woman high on life find love, much to the shock of the rest of the world, in Hal Ashby's beloved black comedy, Harold and Maude. Deadpan rich boy Harold (Bud Cort) stages elaborate (and increasingly hilarious) fake suicide attempts in order to gain the attention of his exasperated mother (Vivian Pickles), who ignores her son’s morbid shenanigans and blithely plans his brilliant future for him.

Obsessed with the trappings of death, Harold freaks out his blind dates, modifies his new sports car to look like a mini-hearse, and attends funerals for fun. But when Harold meets the irrepressible, anything-for-a-thrill septuagenarian Maude (Ruth Gordon), everything changes. An eccentric to the core, Maude lives exactly as she pleases, with avid collecting, nude modeling and car theft among her many pursuits. Much to the horror of Harold's relatives and the befuddlement of his shrink, Harold and Maude fall in love, and as lilting Cat Stevens tunes play on the soundtrack, Maude teaches Harold a few things about making the most of his time on earth. Equal parts gallows humor and romantic innocence, Harold and Maude, one of the biggest cult classics of the ‘70s, is a delightfully offbeat romantic comedy for ALL ages. (Dir. by Hal Ashby, 1971, USA, 91 mins., Rated PG) Digital"

I've seen this movie several times and always enjoy watching the suicidal Harold find friendship with eccentric Maude. It's all about love isn't it today, Valentine's Day? Cat Stevens' music continues to live on and so does Yusuf/Cat Stevens, who has 1.1 Million likes on his Facebook page.

And if you have time at 5 p.m. before this showing. drop by Metal Arts Village. 3230 N. Dodge Blvd. (north of Ft. Lowell Rd.) for their open house (till 8 p.m.) under the FULL MOON. Very romantic for Valentine's Day 2014, especially in their sculpture garden. Check out the new studio C where Dutch immigrant Arjen Hart has his enchanting, luminous metal based pictures.

Okay, actually there are several things about Thucky, but I liked the alliteration so I went with it.

The thing about Thucky for this post is that he purports to be really well read, and perhaps he is, but the synapses just don't fire for him the way they fire for the right-wing economists he worships. In my school days, he would have been referred to as a "dummy try hard." He works really hard. He reads about Rogerson and Prescott. He believes they're really smart. He reads everything they churn out. He knows their conclusions, but doesn't truly grasp how they got there. Nor does he have the mental strength or the intellectual curiosity to challenge anything his heroes throw out there for him.

Let me digress for a second. I use the male pronoun to refer to Thucky, and have no real basis for doing so. Perhaps it's because most of us tend to assume anonymous people are the same gender as we are, or perhaps it's because the real Thucydides actually was male. I don't know, but I recognize the possibility that when I say Thuckmeister I perhaps should be saying Thuckstress.

Anyhow, I've been having this ongoing debate with ole Thuckarooskie about the effect of tax policy on tax revenue, and I've realized that Thucky doesn't really grasp fundamental concepts.

He's on safe ground when he just parrots what Rogerson and Prescott and others have concluded. But when he engages in his own analysis, he gets into trouble.

...Just a vent, but it is time to rename the "Legislative Department" (Article 4) section of the AZ Constitution as the "Micromanaging The Legislative Department" section...

Led by renowned/notorious (pick your preferred term) tea party type Rep. Kelly Townsend, the Arizona Legislature's Black Helicopter Caucus (BHC) has proposed HCR2027, a proposal for a convention to propose amendments to the US Constitution.

They want to impose term limits on federal-level elected officials ('cuz term limits have helped AZ become the best-run state in the country. don'cha know?) and fiscal and authority limits on the federal government.

And after watching the Arizona legislature in action this session, and many sessions before this, I have come to think that the BHC is on to something here.

I mean, they have the wrong goals and the wrong target in mind, but it is definitely time to update the Constitution to address some malfeasance on the part of members of a branch of government.

Of course, the Constitution that needs updating is the Arizona Constitution, and the branch of government that needs to be brought to heel is the Arizona Legislature.

There's a culture of institutional corruption at the legislature, exemplified by the never-ending stream of legislation that serves deep-pocketed lobbyists or even the legislators themselves, almost all contrary to the interests of the people of Arizona.

That corruption is rooted in, and enabled by, a culture of contempt for public service, public servants, and even the public itself.

Time to make some "adjustments".

None of the suggestions that follow are partisan in nature, nor are they about policy. Those considerations change over time; the need for elected officials to conduct the people's business, and themselves, with focus and integrity is timeless.

The GOP crazy base bills are moving through the legislature at a break-neck pace this year. Last year "black helicopters day" at the Arizona Lege didn't come until April. Black helicopters day at the Arizona Lege.

On Wednesday the annual "constitutional sheriffs" bill, a favorite of anti-government right-wing conspiracy theorists who believe the black helicopters of the federal "guvmint" are coming for their guns and "freedom!", is sponsored by far-right extremist groups like former Graham County Sheriff Richard Mack's conspiratorial Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and the Oath Keepers, made up of former and current law enforcement officers and military personnel who believe it is their duty to defy what they deem to be unconstitutional orders. Here is a profile of Mack from the Southern Poverty Law Center. 'Army' of Sheriffs to Resist Federal Authority.

In 2012, wingnut Rep. David Gowan (R-Sierra Vista), who has now been promoted to House Majority Leader, sponsored HB 2434 which would have required employees of federal agencies to first notify the sheriff of the county "before taking any official law enforcement action in a county in this state." HB 2434 was actually approved by the Arizona legislature. It took a veto by Governor Jan Brewer to restore sanity. Governor Brewer vetoes 'States' Rights' Tea-Publican bill.

The sponsor of this year's version of the bill, SB 1290 (.pdf). is the "Birther Queen," Rep. Judy Burges (R-Sun City West), who is also the Grand Inquisitor of climate science denialism. This woman is never without her tinfoil hat.

I don't watch a lot of television, mostly because of crappy television programming like NBC's post-apocalyptic science fiction television drama Revolution, the premise of which is that all electricity on Earth has been disabled and people are forced to adapt to a world without electricity.

Oh noes! Mankind survived for thousands of years without electricity. Hardly scary stuff. You can survive.

Sen. David Farnsworth (R-Mesa), he of "constitutional" chickens fame, fears one day he will be living the premise of this sci-fi TV series. When one can no longer distinguish between reality and a fictional TV series, I do believe it's time to seek professional help.

State lawmakers are moving to make sure you know what to have on hand when electronic Armageddon strikes.

Legislation approved Wednesday by the Senate Public Safety Committee would require the state Division of Emergency Management to develop recommendations for what Arizonans should buy now and store in the garage, basement or storage room just in case an enemy detonates a nuclear or other bomb that wipes out power and communications in the state — and possibly nationwide.

Coming up is an exciting concert event on Saturday, February 15, featuring Japan-born, now Canadian resident Aki Takahashi, along with Kyle Abbott (founder of Bachido.com).

"Aki is a Japanese traditional shamisen player and folk singer. She studied traditional folk music in Kyoto, and has given shamisen and vocal performances at numerous venues and events. Since arriving in Canada, Aki has furthered her pursuit of traditional Japanese music with the addition of taiko drumming, becoming a full member of Nagata Shachu in 2003. She is the founder of the Japanese Folk ensemble ten ten, and has performed with numerous artists from a variety of other cultural backgrounds and traditions. She also creates her own original compositions and has choreographed dance pieces to accompany her music.” (from Odaiko Sonora's FB page)

Read more about Aki at our SAJCC website, or at co-sponsor Odaiko Sonora's taiko drumming website.

Buy tickets online at www.tucsonjapanesegardens.org. And if you haven't viewed the beautiful new Yume Japanese Gardens, 2130 N. Alvernon Way, this is your chance! It's just south of the Tucson Botanical Gardens on Alvernon, south of Grant Rd. Phone: 520-332-2928.

Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has received bipartisan support in the Arizona Legislature, but Arizona's Congressional delegation appears to be lagging behind. Of Arizona's 11 Senators and Representatives, only two-- Southern Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva (D- CD3) and Ron Barber (D- CD2)-- have signed on to co-sponsor legislation to remove the ERA's ratification deadline.

There are two Congressional bills to remove the ratification deadline. In the House, HJ Res 43 has 104 cosponsors (including Grijalva and Barber), and in the Senate, SJ Res 15 has 34 cosponsors.

The ERA was introduced during every Congressional session between 1923 (when it was originally proposed) and 1972. It finally passed Congress nearly 70 years after it was originally introduced. In the 1970s, there was a ground war at the state level to get 38 state legislatures to ratify the ERA in order for it to become a Constitutional Amendment. The ERA fell 3 states short of ratification; Arizona is one of a handful of states that never ratified the ERA. (Contact and Twitter info for Arizona's Congressional delegation after the jump.)

Tucson Rep. Victoria Steele has introduced two bipartisan bills to advance the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the Arizona Legislature. One has made it to committee, while the other is waiting on Speaker of the House Andy Tobin's desk.

HCR2016 is a bill to ratify the ERA. Although ERA ratification has 22 sponsors, including four Republicans, it hasn't made it "out of the gate" yet. According to an aid in Steele's office, HCR2016 hasn't had a "first read" yet. Bills are read first by Speaker Tobin, who determines committee assignments. If a bill is never assigned to a committee, it is dead in the water. (HB2016 text here.)

HCM2006 is a memorandum to the federal government asking that the ratification deadline be extended. HCM2006 has 19 sponsors, including two Republicans. The bill has been assigned to the Federalism and Fiscal Responsibility Committee (FFR) but hasn't made it on the committee's agenda... yet. (More about the committee here. HCM2006 text here.)

Bills can be killed in multiple ways: they can be voted down in committee, voted down by the Legislature, or just plain ignored by the Speaker or the committee chair. Although it's early in the session, it appears as if the ERA bills are being ignored-- even though the ERA has bipartisan support in the Legislature and broad, popular support among the majority of Americans. (Sponsor list after the jump.)

Because of the near-secret nature of lawmakers’ internal email addresses, the emails have raised more than a few eyebrows — and the possibility that one of their own was behind, or at least assisting in the attacks.

* * *

“It’s got to be another member. Probably one of the crazy ones,” said a Republican who had seen the email, which was sent from an anonymous email address, unrepresentative1@gmx.com.

Wait, "one of the crazy ones"? That doesn't narrow things down at all!

The Senate on Wednesday voted 67-31 to break a filibuster and advance a "clean" debt limit hike, which the House passed a day earlier.

Shockingly, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) [provided the final] votes for cloture. Both are up for re-election and were widely expected to vote against the procedural motion. [Soon after, a half dozen other Republicans joined the two leaders.]

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